SHA1 crypto algorithm underpinning Internet security could fall by 2018

A widely used cryptographic algorithm used to secure sensitive websites, software, and corporate servers is weak enough that well-financed criminals could crack it in the next six years, a cryptographer said.

The prediction about the SHA1 algorithm, posted recently to a hash function mailing list sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, is based on calculations its author and fellow cryptographers admit are rough. The back-of-the-envelope math also incorporates several assumptions that are by no means certain. At the same time, the ability to carry out a reliable “collision attack” on SHA1 would have catastrophic effects on the security of the Internet.

» via ars technica

Notes

  1. hellothisisnotagoodplan reblogged this from infoneer-pulse
  2. unfinite reblogged this from infoneer-pulse
  3. infoneer-pulse posted this